Toby Harnden was the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC, from 2006 to 2011. Click here for Toby's website. Follow him on Twitter here @tobyharnden and on Facebook here. He is the author of the bestselling book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story Britain's War in Afghanistan.

Loneliness of the long-distance Ron Paul

It may seem sometimes that running for president is all about corporate jets, Secret Service protection and a fawning entourage. Not for Ron Paul, the libertarian anti-war outsider generating some fervent support and impressive fundraising totals. There he was at Washington Reagan airport last night lugging his bags onto the same Continental Airlines flight to Houston as me. On his own. Not an aide in sight.

Once on the plane, no one seemed to notice who he was and he chatted amiably (he was sitting behind me) to the man next to him about the weather and the quality of the red wine. As we got off in Houston he was there to spend 24 hours at home I asked him about Mitt Romney's address about his faith at College Station, Texas, which was where I was headed. He seemed only faintly aware it was happening. "Useless politicking!" he exclaimed. "Mormons against radical Baptists. Bah!"